Dad’s Army: A cultural smash’n’grab that goes through the motions

Press Association

How do you improve on the perfection of Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s sitcom Dad’s Army, which began active service in 1968 and remains a jewel in the crown of the BBC comedy archives?

You don’t.

If you’re director Oliver Parker and screenwriter Hamish McColl, you pepper a flimsy plot that would barely stretch to one TV episode let alone 100 minutes with the show’s catchphrases and pray our abiding affection for the characters will compensate for long passages without a discernible punchline.

Original cast members Ian Lavender and Frank Williams are conscripted to cameo roles to heighten the whiff of nostalgia.

Limp innuendo-laden banter about sausages barely merits a smirk, pratfalls are predictable and a terrific ensemble cast of gifted comic actors go on patrol without an arsenal of decent one-liners.

From uninspired beginning to muddled end, it’s a cultural smash’n’grab that goes through the motions and will ultimately be remembered as a badly missed opportunity.

Toby Jones and Catherine Zeta Jones

England, 1944.

The Second World War is on a knife edge and in the cosy community of Walmington-on-Sea, blustering bank manager George Mainwaring (Toby Jones) proudly leads the local Home Guard.

Dad’s Army opens with a limp set piece involving a stand-off between the Home Guard and runaway livestock.

“We’re supposed to be locking horns with the Hun not Bertie the bull!” despairs one of the men, echoing our mounting frustration.

Jones lightens the darkening mood with a few moments of physical humour, including choking on a slice of cake, while Nighy relies on his usual snorts and tics for merriment.

Montagu, Lancashire and co bring a diluted degree of girl power to proceedings that might be dismissed as tokenism without their characters’ pivotal involvement in the hare-brained and lacklustre denouement.